Daddy's Girl
by Wreckilicious
Summary: When Ozzie thought Heather was dead, he remembers what happened to her mother and siblings and how he almost lost her once before.


A/N: The flashback sequence takes place when the only family members would have been Verne, Lou, Penny, and Ozzie. I couldn't really figure out how to put Stella and Hammy into the picture so I have them not having moved in yet. And the triplets wouldn't have been born at this time yet so hope that's fine!

* * *

Daddy's Girl

"Lou, Penny, back to the tv!" RJ instructed with a serious look in his eyes. "Heather, keep an eye on that human!"

The young possum winked. "I'm on it RJ!" She turned and ran towards the staircase where the Human (Gladys) would be emerging. She wanted to prove that she was a vital asset to the team and could stand out. She barely heard her dad calling out, "No, Heather! Wait!" behind her.

Ozzie didn't quite catch up with his daughter. He thought he heard her say something from the top of the stairs and suddenly heard a scream. In horror, he watched as Heather went flying backwards into the air and hit the wall with a loud thud. She landed lifelessly in a heap, her eyes closed to the world.

"HEATHER!"

Heart racing he ran towards his only child, collapsed beside her. He quickly surveyed the situation, not believing this had happened. He gently picked her up into his arms and held her tightly, tears forming in his eyes. He didn't care if the human decided to kill him then either, life would be meaningless if his little girl was dead.

"Oh, Heather…"

* * *

_Several Years Earlier…_

_It was a beautiful summer day in the forest. Six baby possums were busy running around clumsily at the entrance of the log that everyone called Home. The seventh baby, the only girl and the runt of the litter (Heather), was curled up in her mother's front paws trying to take a nap. Ozzie was gently playing with the boys (Peter, Kevin, Barry, William, Rupert, and Trevor) as they would crawl up his tail and hang upside from it, then he'd shake them off. They would giggle in their little baby voices and do it again. They loved riding around on their parents more than anything. _

"_Play dead! Play dead!" _

_Ozzie fell to his knees with one arm stretched out to the sky. "Farewell, bright sun," he said emotionally before collapsing on his back. _

_The kids were laughing vigorously._

"_Me too!" Peter shouted, tugging at his dad's ear to watch him. He then did a mimic performance of what his dad just did. _

_Ozzie laughed at him. "Very good, my boy. Quite the natural."_

_Their mother, Tina, was running a paw gently over little Heather as she napped. She woke up a little, her blue eyes groggily looking around .Her brothers meanwhile were tiring their dad out._

"_Daddy, ride! Daddy, ride!" the boys were all saying unanimously. _

"_Hold on, boys, Daddy needs a break," Ozzie was wheezing. "Go rest with your sister for a few minutes."_

"_Awwww…." they all whined. Ozzie frowned. He hated disappointing them but his back was killing him!_

_Tina gently put Heather to the side, who was now fully awake and trotted over to smell a flower. _

"_I'll take the next round with them, dear," she told her husband, giving him an affectionate nose rub. "Come on, kids, who wants some berries?"_

"_Me! Me! Me!" They all fought each other to crawl up Tina's back. Rupert and Barry balanced on her tail. They loved hanging upside down more than the other ones did. _

_Heather spoke the least of the bunch, but she squeaked at them to wait and sat right at the front on her mother's head. Trevor didn't look too happy about that because he liked sitting there too. _

_They waved bye to their dad and Ozzie could hear them all still squealing happily as their mom took them to the berry bushes. _

_Lou showed up then, bringing a pile of bark with him to place in the log. They were all in the process of filling the log up for the winter. _

"_Hi there, Ozzie," Lou greeted as he tossed the bark to the side. "Got a break from the kids there, did ya?"_

"_For a little while, maybe. Tina took them for berries. Hopefully they'll settle down for a nap after that."_

"_Boy, I tell ya, having kids sure looks fun there. Penny can't wait 'til she gets to be a mother, you know?"_

"_It's very rewarding, Lou. Being a father is the most rewarding experience one can have in a life, I'm sure."_

_The peace was shattered by a blood-curdling scream. "OZZIE! A FOX!"_

_Ozzie's heart stopped. Oh God, a fox? In these woods? _

"_TINA!" Ozzie screamed out, dashing through the woods in the direction Tina had gone. _

"_PENNY, VERNE! FOX IS AFTER TINA!" Lou shouted out as he ran after Ozzie to help him find his family. _

_Ozzie skidded to a stop as he reached the berry bushes. He saw Tina's tracks and few tiny ones that belonged to the kids. Some berries were smashed into the ground. He saw the fox tracks as well. It appeared a scuffle of some sort had taken place if the marks in the dirt were any sign._

_Heart racing, he stood on his tiptoes and rotated his ears in all directions to pick up where they had run off to. He finally heard some squeaking and ran some more. Lou was desperately trying to keep up with him, but Ozzie didn't have time to turn back and see if he was even still back there. _

"_TINA!" he called again, a nauseating feeling of dread sweeping over him. _

_Nobody answered him. He couldn't hear anything anymore. "TINA!"_

"_I don't hear anything, Ozzie!" Lou exclaimed in a panic. _

"_I know, I know!" he said, growing extremely frustrated. " Oh God, what if-"_

"_Don't think that way!" the porcupine told him, grabbing one shoulder to steady him. "We'll find them!"_

'_Penny and Verne eventually caught up with them, joining in the search party. They searched all day and well into the evening with no luck. Tina and the kids were gone. Just disappeared without a trace. If they were dead, the bodies were nowhere to be found. There wasn't even a trace of blood to go by. Ozzie was a complete wreck, not wanting to quit on them but knowing that they would never find them. _

"_I can't believe they're gone!" he sobbed, leaning on Verne for support. The turtle wrapped his arms around the grieving possum. He had tears in his eyes too; they all did. _

"_We all loved Tina and the kids very much," Verne told him, patting his back comfortingly. "We'll get through it together and we'll keep looking until we find them."_

_Penny started crying on Lou's shoulder. "Jeepers, Lou, I hope nothing ever happens like this when we have children."_

"_There there, dear, we'll be all right."_

_At that moment, a tiny little voice started crying from a short distance. Ozzie's ears perked up and he pulled himself away from Verne._

"_Did you hear that?"_

_Everyone else exchanged glances, not having heard the noise. _

"_Listen, there it is again!" Ozzie insisted, taking off into the dark. The rest followed behind, afraid of what they would find. _

"_Daddy!" the voice called out. "Daddy!"_

"_That's Heather!" Ozzie exclaimed happily. "Heather! Where are you!"_

_The tiny possum ran towards him and Ozzie swept her up in his arms for a huge hug. "Oh honey, Daddy was so worried!"_

"_Daddy!" Heather cried, still frightened by the ordeal from earlier and happy to be back with her dad. "No Mommy…"_

_Ozzie sighed. "No, Mommy's not here, baby girl. Don't worry, Daddy will watch out for you. I promise."_

_Everybody started crying at the emotional scene, reaching out to give them a group hug. That was the first time they all really started to think of each other as a real family.

* * *

_

Ozzie held on tight to Heather, praying she wasn't really dead. He didn't know what he'd do if he lost her like he had the rest of their family. He felt like such a failure, he didn't protect his own child like he had promised to when she was a baby. What kind of father was he?

Suddenly, he felt her move some and he held her out in front of him to take a look at her. She was smiling at him with her big blue eyes wide open.

"I thought you were dead," he said softly, still in shock.

"I learned from the best, Dad," Heather told him proudly, giving him a big grin.

She had been playing dead the whole time. He couldn't really believe it, since she was always so embarrassed when he did it himself. His heart swelled up with happiness and he wanted to cry again. He held it in though, he didn't want her to know how scared he had really been. She would have felt bad for putting him through that again if she knew.

"That's my girl."


End file.
